So-called child climate activist Licypriya Kangujam posted a thread of tweets yesterday narrating ‘the poor financial condition’ of her family. While the 11-year-old minor girl didn’t seek donations despite the tone of the tweets suggesting that she was seeking financial help, she added a cryptic phrase saying “What you heard from media is too different from the real life”. We could not find any media report on her that could have prompted her to post the tweets.
My name is Licypriya. I’m 11 years old. I live in a rented house in Delhi. I studied in a school with free merit scholarship till Grade 12. My mom runs a small street vendor shop. My family doesn’t own any property or a house or a car. I represented India 🇮🇳 in over 7 UN events. pic.twitter.com/HkoIdawag7
— Licypriya Kangujam (@LicypriyaK) December 14, 2022
However, what have raised questions is, the mismatch between her claims and her lifestyle that she herself documents on social media. She said that her family does not even have a bed to sleep on, as her father is jobless and her mother runs a small street vendor shop. She said that the expenses for her travelling to speak at various events are sponsored by organisers of such events, and that she has donated all the remuneration she receives for public speaking and awards to support children’s education and victims of climate change.
However, Twitter users were quick to point out that Licypriya Kangujam posted the tweets from an iPhone. It raises questions on how a family that can’t afford a bed can afford an iPhone.
You should have Purchased a bed before buying iPhone & paying for bluetick pic.twitter.com/eGVXVnkacN
— Samrat Bhai (@BhaiiSamrat) December 14, 2022
Netizens soon dug out her earlier social media posts which suggests that her family is not so poor after all. On November 17, she had posted a photograph herself where she was seen sporting a wrist watch and ear buds.
No bed poor people. Damn. I wanna be this poor pic.twitter.com/1K8IxJrezp
— Ravi Shankar Posina (@posina_ravi) December 14, 2022
While these may not be very expensive gadgets, these still seems totally unnecessary for a family that does not have a bed. After several people posted screenshots of that tweet, she deleted it, which proves that she does not have an explanation for it.
Licypriya Kangujam posted photographs from her house earlier, and it is clear that it is a decent house with all the necessary amenities and furniture. Some photographs she posted on Facebook show a couch, a TV, and a bookstand filled with various awards and citations she has received, along with other furniture.
Similarly, a photo from another room shows a study table with a desktop computer and wood and steel furniture. The house with painted walls and tiled floors do not match how she described her house in her tweets.
There are also photographs showing her visit to the Great Pyramids of Giza in Egypt along with her family, and other international tourist destinations. It is not sure if the organisers of the events where she is invited to speak also sponsor such trips for her family to tourist places.
It seems her mother travels with her to international destinations almost always, perhaps as a guardian as Lycypriya is a minor. As the girl visits lots of events for speeches, it means her mother’s ‘small street vendor shop’ remains closed for long periods of time. But that does not seem to affect their lifestyle, like having a large collection of clothes and visiting restaurants like KYLIN Experience, a chain of luxury oriental restaurants.
In her tweets, Lycypriya said that she is 11 years old and she “studied in a school with free merit scholarship till Grade 12.” This raises obvious questions, a 11 year old can’t be studying in grade 12. When people started to question her on it, she ‘clarified’ that it is was a typo and it should be ‘study’, not ‘studied’. She said that she is currently studying in class 5, and she meant that she has scholarship till class 12th.
While the girl claims her family does not have a house, property or a car, her father was arrested for collecting a large amount of money by duping students. Over 100 students from various countries had paid $300 for a fake youth exchange program run by Kanarjit Kangujam. He had collected at least $44,685 through this scam, more than ₹35 lakh. He had also collected crores of rupees through several seminars in the name of collecting donations for earthquake victims.
Lycypriya’s father was declared a fugitive in 2016 by a court in Manipur, and the Manipur police had announced a reward of ₹1 lakh for information on him. While he was on the run, he was finally arrested by Delhi police in May 2021. He was released on bail in February this year.
Kanarjit Kangujam had defrauded many people posing as officials of various organisations like UN, UNESCO etc. He ran an organisation called International Youth Committee with a fake address in Delhi. He used this ‘organisation’ to hold seminars and meetings to dupe people. He is also accused of selling property belonging to his landlord that he had pretending to be from ‘UNESCO Youth Foundation’ to two different persons.
After several cases were filed against him and police started to looking for him, his seminar activities vanished, and at the same time, Licypriya Kangujam started to appear on media as a child activist.
Interestingly, during the period her father was in jail, social media accounts of Licypriya Kangujam went silent. And after he was released, she started to post updates on social media. This seemed to confirm what was already suspected by many, that her social media accounts are actually run by her father.
It is notable that Licypriya Kangujam was turned into a climate activist by her father using fraudulent means. He had got her fake awards from fake organisations he had created, and managed to got the news of such ‘awards’ on the media, which established her as a child activist, with many calling her India’s Greta Thunberg.
Many of her claims of speeches at the UN are also fake. For example in 2019, she had claimed that she was selected to address the United Nations (UN) in the sixth session of Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction 2019 at the UN headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland. However, ahead of the event, she claimed that she decided not to attend the program as she was ‘in depression’.
However, when the organisers of the UN event were contacted by media, they had confirmed that Licypriya was not invited to speak at the event. The ‘invitation letter’ that she had displayed turned out to be a letter confirming registration to attend the event as a member of the audience.
